Month: December 1982

The Gift Of Music Albums At Keele, Late December 1982

The Jam In 1982 – Picture by Neil Twink Tinning, CC BY 2.5

Over that seasonal holiday 1982 into 1983, there are several references in my diary to taping and cataloguing tapes at Keele.

The fact that I have kept those catalogues provides me with some clues:

My Bruneian flatmate, Hamzah, had a pretty decent stereo system and a “not so bad” collection of records. Not all my taste, but eclectic. That Christmas, I think he went down early to stay with friends in London and gave me licence to listen to and tape whichever of his albums I fancied.

Veera Bachra, who lived in the flat opposite ours, I think stuck around a while longer and contributed a few albums to my recording session, as did Kev Davis, who is mentioned in my diary during that post term period in December 1982.

The result was some interesting additions to my cassette collection.

But ahead of those, I notice three cassette tapes that I “bought” (or more probably sent away for having collected a sufficiency of vouchers) from Duracell. I still have those cassettes and each of them contained at least one or two tracks that I really liked and previously lacked. I believe I acquired those during that term.

I’ll write about the Comedy Classics tapes separately. I had been working on those the previous summer and I think I completed them (or at least brought them up to Keele) after a visit to my parents during that autumn term. Alan Gorman and I listened to those tapes a lot – especially certain bits of them. As did Liza O’Connor.

Making Movies and Love Over Gold by Dire Straits were huge hits – the latter very much part of my sound track of that autumn term, as Hamzah played the album a lot. Here’s one of the best known tracks:

Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mine – The Doors compilation album – added to my little collection of their wonderful work, as did Veera’s The Doors Vol 2. I seem to recall hearing Riders On the Storm emanating from Hamzah’s room a lot in Barnes L54.

Of all those “Hamzah and Veera” records I got into that winter, I particularly remember enjoying Handsworth Revolution by Steele Pulse. It had sort of passed me by when it came out a few years earlier, but i caught up with it good and proper that winter. Here’s one especially good track – Prodigal Son, performed live:

In truth I listened to East Side Story by Squeeze a lot less, but I did (and still) like several songs from that album, including this one:

Hypnotised by The Undertones was another album that passed me by at the time, but, thanks to Veera, I caught up with it (and it with me) in late 1982. Here’s one choice track:

The Gift by The Jam was a super album, containing hits and some excellent album tracks too. I especially liked this funky track – Precious:

The Jam was actually in most of our thoughts that Christmas, having been topping the charts with Beat Surrender, before that song surrendered to Renee & Renato – I won’t torture you with the latter:

I would have sworn I ripped Abbey Road from Liza’s collection of Beatles albums, but it seems it was from Hamzah’s. There’s something:

I don’t think I listened much to Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, nor The Raven by The Stranglers. But I did have a soft spot for Messages from the former…

…while Don’t Bring Harry reminded me of my earlier Keele existence in Lindsay F Block, where “Mad Harry” held sway:

I did listen a lot to Forever Changes by Love, nearly wearing out the tape listening to Alone Again Or, which I still rate as a truly great track:

Bat Out Of Hell by Meatloaf just struck me as one of those albums that I lacked, despite it’s sounds having been following me around since my school years. This was probably my favourite track from that album:

Kev Davis had introduced me to some pockets of reggae that had escaped my attention. Red by Black Uhuru was one such excellent album. I listened to it a lot at that time.

I subsequently got into Al Stewart’s Year Of the Cat album far more than Time Passages, but the latter was in Hamzah’s collection. The title track follows – sort of appropriate for a “soundtrack of forty years on” posting:

The Sun Sets On The Outside Edge Of 1982 At Keele, 11 to 22 December 1982

With thanks to Graham Sedgley for these photos: Sunset At Keele, Winter 2022

For reasons I probably don’t need to explain in detail, I stayed up at Keele for best part of a fortnight after term finished in December 1982. The diary mostly mentions seeing Liza (who lived at The Sneyd Arms, so of course was still around) and doing a bit of academic work.

For those who haven’t been avidly following this “forty years on” series and weren’t around in the heady days of the early 1980s, students were required to sign on the dole every holiday if they didn’t have a holiday job and needed the financial support. But I especially like my above Tuesday write up:

Rose late. Did little. Union in afternoon & evening -> Kev’s – got very out of it!

Kev in that instance will be Kev Davis, who was quite a character. Alcohol, cannabinoids and amphetamines might well have been involved, although by then I expect I demurred on partaking of the latter, having previously found the experience unpleasant.

More time with Liza and doing some work. Also another mention of shopping – this will have been food shopping only – I have never been through a “retail therapy” phase.

A most unusual diary entry on 19 December 1982:

…watched play on TV in evening…

Alan Gorman had kindly left his portable TV behind in the flat when he went home at the end of term, enabling me to watch some TV when occupying the flat for most of the Christmas break.

Some detective work with Mr Google reveals that the television version of Richard Harris’s wonderful play about cricket, Outside Edge, was first broadcast that night, 19 December 1982. Superb cast, as you’ll see if you click the preceding link. I do remember thoroughly enjoying that play, but I was too polite to name it in the diary!

Paul Eddington & Prunella Scales in Outside Edge – picture grabbed on a “fair use for identification purposes basis” from classictelly.com.

Monday 20 December 1982 …did some taping…

Yes, I can see in my cassette log that I got busy around that time. Hamzah had a “proper hi-fi” including a record player and cassette deck. He also had some records I fancied listening to some more, as did my lovely neighbour from the flat across the way, Veera Bachra and as did Kev Davis.

I’ll write some more over the seasonal break about those music tapes and also about the comedy tapes we (by which I mean primarily me, Liza and Alan) were listening to at that time.

But for now, let’s look at Graham Sedgley’s glorious Keele winter sunset picture once again.

End Of Term At Keele – Several Nights Out Including A “Not Good At All” UGM Plus A Memorable Thunderbirds Evening, 3 To 10 December 1982

As the end of my first P2 term loomed, I spent less time working (getting through my deadlines in decent time, it seems) and more time with Lisa and friends.

“Mike & Mandy” mentioned in the Friday 3 December entry were friends (and soon to be flatmates) of Lisa’s at North Staffs Poly. That evening in the Students’ Union might have been the first time I met them.

I have no recollection of the “not good at all” UGM on Monday 6 December. My guess is that Truda Smith and her reactionary forces were seeking to subvert our Keele Action Group purposes.

The fiends.

Mind you, the thought of any Constitutional Committee meeting followed by a UGM does not fill me with delight, in hindsight. I am reminded of the quote attributed to Oscar Wilde: “The trouble with socialism is that it takes up too many evenings”. Or, in my case, too many meetings.

In that very last week of term, it seems that Alan Gorman joined us for at least a couple of those sociable (kin contrast with the socialism) evenings. I remember Lisa and Alan getting on well; they shared a quirky sense of humour which possibly explains how both of them were able to tolerate me so much.

I recall some late evenings in the flat listening to some of my comedy sketch tapes and laughing like drains together. But I’m pretty sure that kicked off in the second term. I’ll write more about it then.

At the end of this first term, the event that sticks in my mind the most is the Wednesday 8 December entry which mentions the Thunderbirds night.

Fair use of Thunderbirds logo headline & above from Wikipedia for identification and illustration.

I think there must have been some sort of cinema release of a feature length Thunderbirds compilation or something around that time. I think they also repeated the original TV series (but that had been and continued happening periodically for decades).

Point is, there was certainly a bit of a cult following vibe amongst students for Thunderbirds at that time.

We (which means me, Lisa, Alan and I think Ashley Fletcher was with us that night -possibly others too) went to a screening somewhere on the campus. It might have been Film Soc. in the Chancellor’s Building, but I have a feeling that this screening was in the Union or possibly a Horwood Refectory job.

I recall a lot of “audience participation”, for example with students proffering unsolicited advice on romance in the direction of a hapless Tracy youth (I think Alan). Mind you, I think Keele students on the whole had got the hang of such things a bit better than the befuddled marionette.

It was all in good humour and (in our case certainly) a form of reverent mockery. We liked Thunderbirds. We also liked to laugh at Thunderbirds.

I haven’t changed all that much in this regard, forty years on. During lockdown, Janie and I watched a few old episodes through the Wayback Machine to cheer ourselves up. Still good.

If you just want a taster, this launch sequence is wonderful, although it has been much parodied since:

I was also reminded recently, by Pete Roberts of all people, of a wonderful parody of such films by Peter Cook & Dudley Moore: Superthunderstingcar.

On Friday 10 December the term formally came to an end, although I stayed up at Keele for a further 10+ days, which I shall report about in the next enthralling episode of “Forty Years On”.